Stoic Meditations

Seneca uses the analogy of a scabbard and a sword to remind us that external goods, like wealth or health, are indeed preferable, but only in a limited fashion. What's truly important is the shape of our character. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Marcus Aurelius advises us to live by avoiding both violent emotions and torpor, and by not being a hypocrite. But also, to treat every day as if it were our last. What does that mean? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca provides a very clear explanation of the Stoic distinction between virtue and external things, leading to the surprising conclusion that even health is not an unquestionable good. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca talks about a major "side effect," so to speak, of the Stoic stance: achieving tranquillity of mind through the development of an attitude of equanimity. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero asserts the standard, and apparently paradoxical, Stoic position that virtue is the onyl true good. Let's see why. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca says that Nature does not discriminate, it hands out suffering and death to everyone, eventually. But we can still make our life better by developing equanimity toward what we cannot change while trying to change what we can. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Epictetus reminds us that character is a matter of habit. Willfully change your habits, and you will be on your way toward becoming a better human being. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

This episode features our first discussion of Cicero. While not a Stoic (he considered himself an Academic Skeptic), he was sympathetic to Stoic philosophy, and frequently borrowed from it to create his own eclectic blend of moral philosophy. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca, building on the Stoic concept of universal causation, reminds us that we don't get to say how the universe works. Our only choices are to accept it (and work within it), or take "the open door," as Epictetus puts it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca reminds us that although some people are naturally more virtuous than others, and that much depends on our family upbringing, we are capable of making rational decisions as adults. So make the decision to practice every day to become a better human being. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca provides us with one of the best definitions of wisdom. Let's see what it means, and how to apply it to our daily life. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Marcus Aurelius exhorts us to not just do it, but slow down, think about it, and then see if we really want to do it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca says it no uncertain terms: it is not wisdom that contrives arms, or walls, or instruments useful in war; nay, her voice is for peace, and she summons all mankind to concord. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca summarizes the reasons why to live a good life (the domain of Ethics) one has to learn how to reason well (Logic) and how to better understand the world (Physics). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca criticizes the tendency of some philosophers to spend a lot of time trying to develop more careful ways of speaking, at the expense of figuring out more careful ways of living. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca says that it causes far too much discomfort to the ears of others to be recognized as a learned person. Better for us and everyone else to be recognized as a good person. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Epictetus advises his students, and all of us, to drop our preconceptions and actually open our minds to new notions. Try to practice that the next time you engage in a "conversation" on social media. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

In a rather forceful passage Seneca makes a strong political statement, referring to Roman imperialism as "sacrilege on a grand scale." Unfortunately, two millennia later, we still honor that sort of sacrilege, which flies in the face of the virtue of justice and the concept of cosmopolitanism. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca constructs another logical argument to make the point that wealth is not an intrinsic good. Rather, it is how it is used that can be good or bad. Know any virtuous billionaires, by chance? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca builds a simple argument to show that random events, like winning a lottery, are actually not good for you, despite appearances to the contrary. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support